Schofield backs Garcia quest

By Lewine Mair

5:50PM GMT 09 Jan 2002

ON THE eve of this week's South African Open, the first PGA European tour event of 2002, Ken Schofield said that Sergio Garcia's comments of last weekend had come as music to his ears. Shortly after he had won in Hawaii, Garcia noted that he was out to win the Order of Merit on both sides of the Atlantic.

In the first half of 2001, the Spaniard was more interested in establishing himself in America than playing in Europe. He duly won the MasterCard Colonial and the Buick Classic but, as a result of his American venture, failed to leave himself enough time to capture an automatic berth in Europe's 2001 Ryder Cup side.

While welcoming Garcia's latest affirmation of his commitment to playing golf in Europe, the chief executive of the European tour recognises that, in the changing world of professional golf, European tour regulations should not get in the way of those with the Spaniard's twin ambitions.

"I don't have a problem with Sergio wanting to play mostly in the States," Schofield said. "When three of the majors are played in the US and the World Golf Championships are largely American-based, it's hardly surprising players want to go over there and prepare for them."

He went on to describe the USPGA tour as a "one-stop shop", an arena in which everyone speaks the same language, uses the same currency and has little reason to travel elsewhere.

Related Articles

Already, with the majors and the World Golf Championships counting towards the 11 tournaments necessary to qualify for membership of the European tour, four additional events will suffice for the Sergios of this world to remain in the fold.

"Jesper Parnevik," said Schofield in a reference to the Swede's seeming difficulty in teeing up on this side of the Atlantic, "may see it as a problem, but it's not asking a lot." Clearly, he hopes that England's Luke Donald, the 2001 Walker Cup player who is starting his professional career on the 2002 USPGA tour, will agree. Now, Schofield wants to see the Ryder Cup selection process made easier for these players. Instead of the first 10 places going to the top 10 on the European Ryder Cup points list, he suggests five of the 10 could be plucked from the world rankings.

Schofield reiterated that he has had no second thoughts about the decision to play this year's Ryder Cup with last year's teams. "It is the 2001 Ryder Cup," he reminded his audience.

For some weeks, he worried as to how the European tour would be affected by events of Sept 11. To his relief, the answer would seem to be that it has suffered less than it did in the wake of the Gulf War when three Italian-based tournaments were crossed from the list.

In speaking of the more lucrative European-based events, he welcomed the continuation of the Dunhill Links Championship which had been cut from an early 2002 schedule following press criticism of the inaugural event in October.

Dunhill, he said, had responded to "a bit of space". For himself, he had always felt they were unlikely to turn their back on an event with so much potential. "It would have been wrong," said Schofield, "to allow pettiness and bad weather to get in the way of a tournament which could become the best pro-am in the world."

Though no sponsor has yet been announced for the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond, Schofield senses that golf in Scotland is about to find the same fresh expression that has been such a feature of the game in Ireland in the last decade.

Apart from holding the Murphy's Irish Open, the Smurfit European Open and the North West of Ireland Open in 2002, the Irish are also hosting the Seve Ballesteros Trophy as a prelude to the 2006 Ryder Cup. The Great Britain and Ireland versus Europe match, which was played for the first time at Sunningdale in 2000, is to be held at Druids Glen, County Wicklow, in the week after the Masters.

Though he spoke of how Sweden, France and Germany are expected to develop venues capable of holding a Ryder Cup over the next decade, Schofield suggested that the centre of power in European golf remains unchanged. "The heartbeat of the European tour is still in the British Isles."